{"id":32031,"date":"2022-08-01T11:07:44","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T11:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/nichelle-nichols-lt-uhura-on-star-trek-has-died-at-89\/"},"modified":"2022-08-01T11:07:44","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T11:07:44","slug":"nichelle-nichols-lt-uhura-on-star-trek-has-died-at-89","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/nichelle-nichols-lt-uhura-on-star-trek-has-died-at-89\/","title":{"rendered":"Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura on ‘Star Trek,’ has died at 89"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood when she played communications officer Lt. Uhura on the original \u201cStar Trek\u201d television series, has died at the age of 89. <\/p>\n
Kyle Johnson said Nichols died Saturday in Silver City, New Mexico.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration, \u201dJohnson wrote on her official Facebook page Sunday. \u201cHers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her role in the 1966-69 series as Lt. Uhura earned Nichols a lifelong position of honor with the series’ rabid fans, known as Trekkers and Trekkies. It also earned her accolades for breaking stereotypes that had limited Black women to acting roles as servants and included an interracial onscreen kiss with co-star William Shatner that was unheard of at the time. <\/p>\n
\u201cI shall have more to say about the trailblazing, incomparable Nichelle Nichols, who shared the bridge with us as Lt. Uhura of the USS Enterprise, and who passed today at age 89,\u201d George Takei wrote on Twitter. \u201cFor today, my heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among, my dearest friend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Takei played Sulu in the original \u201cStar Trek\u201d series alongside Nichols. But her impact was felt beyond her immediate co-stars, and many others in the \u201cStar Trek\u201d world also tweeted their condolences. <\/p>\n
Celia Rose Gooding, who currently plays Uhura in \u201cStar Trek: Strange New Worlds,\u201d wrote on Twitter that Nichols \u201cmade room for so many of us. She was the reminder that not only can we reach the stars, but our influence is essential to their survival. Forget shaking the table, she built it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStar Trek: Voyager\u201d alum Kate Mulgrew tweeted, \u201cNichelle Nichols was The First. She was a trailblazer who navigated a very challenging trail with grit, grace, and a gorgeous fire we are not likely to see again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like other original cast members, Nichols also appeared in six big-screen spinoffs starting in 1979 with \u201cStar Trek: The Motion Picture\u201d and frequented \u201cStar Trek\u201d fan conventions. She also served for many years as a NASA recruiter, helping bring minorities and women into the astronaut corps.<\/p>\n
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Nichols broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
More recently, she had a recurring role on television’s \u201cHeroes,\u201d playing the great-aunt of a young boy with mystical powers.<\/p>\n
The original \u201cStar Trek\u201d premiered on NBC on Sept. 8, 1966. Its multicultural, multiracial cast was creator Gene Roddenberry’s message to viewers that in the far-off future \u2014 the 23rd century \u2014 human diversity would be fully accepted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think many people took it into their hearts … that what was being said on TV at that time was a reason to celebrate,\u201d Nichols said in 1992 when a \u201cStar Trek\u201d exhibit was on view at the Smithsonian Institution.<\/p>\n
She often recalled how Martin Luther King Jr. was a fan of the show and praised every role. She met him at a civil rights gathering in 1967, at a time when she had decided not to return for the show’s second season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I told him I was going to miss my co-stars and I was leaving the show, he became very serious and said, ‘You cannot do that,’\u201d she told The Tulsa (Okla.) World in a 2008 interview. <\/p>\n
\u201c’You’ve changed the face of television forever, and therefore, you’ve changed the minds of people,’\u201d she said the civil rights leader told her. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat foresight Dr. King had was a lightning bolt in my life,\u201d Nichols said.<\/p>\n
During the show’s third season, Nichols’ character and Shatner’s Capt. James Kirk shared what was described as the first interracial kiss to be broadcast on a US television series. In the episode, \u201cPlato’s Stepchildren,\u201d their characters, who always maintained a platonic relationship, were forced into the kiss by aliens who were controlling their actions.<\/p>\n